Nearly 20% fewer candidates for the Catholic priesthood have enrolled in Poland’s seminaries this year, when compared to 2020.
Fr Piotr Kot, chairman of the Conference of Rectors of Major Seminaries, revealed that 356 seminarians began their studies in 2021.
Last year, he said, there were 441 candidates, meaning that “the number is lower by approximately 20%”.
He explained that of the 356 candidates, 242 were training for the diocesan priesthood and 114 for religious orders.
There were 47 fewer seminarians in diocesan seminaries and 38 fewer candidates for religious orders compared with the previous year, he said.
The Polish Catholic weekly Gosc Niedzielny noted that priestly vocations had declined continuously in Poland in recent years.
In 2012, it said, 828 candidates enrolled in the first year of seminary. There were 498 in 2019 and 441 in 2020.
Fr Kot said that it was difficult to distinguish all of the factors behind the fall in priestly vocations with any complete certainty.
He said that while God continued to call people, young people had difficulty responding. “Sometimes they judge themselves unworthy or incapable of such a life,” he said. “Behind this may be difficult stories in the past: lack of appropriate role models in the family home, early addictions, personality problems, and identity disorders.”
